Overclocking Core 2 Duo 6300

with 6300 you can get to 6600 and beyond. I'm currently at 3.2 GHZ and with better ram or more voltage to it can get around 3.5GHZ. You can even buy 4300 an get there too with cheaper ram. Of course you will have to spend a little bit more on good air cooler. I got scythe Infinity for about 40$ some time ago.

I haven't tried any AMD, so no comments about the comparison.

I'm running a similar setup (E6300 clocked at E6600 speed). Just raise the FSB to 343, that will give you 2.4GHz just like the E6600 and set your RAM to 1:1 which will result in DDR2-686 speed. Be sure to lock the CPU voltage down though because if left on AUTO your temps will be higher than need-be. I'm going off memory, but I believe I run mine at either 1.25V or 1.30V and its about 36C/49C (idle/load). With the E6300, you'll only have half the cache of the E6600, but that won't be much of a performance hit.

Get a E6320, which has 4 MB (like the e6600) instead of the 2 mb the e6300 has. If you overclock it to 2.4 (e6600 speed), it will perform exactly as the e6600, if you overclock it higher (say to 3.0), then it will exceed an e6600's performance. I would go with the E6420 though, since it has a multiplier and you can easily achieve a 3.2 Ghz overclock with good ddr2-800 ram.

an overclocked E6300 will definitely perform better than 5600+, but how much better depends on the extent of overclock.

its very easy to raise E6300 past E6600. mine is around E6700 with minimum adjust in voltage.

however once you get the E6300, you have to overclock it again, as the overclocking data will be stored in BIOS on the Motherboard. but it should be a no brainer.

if you need any help in overclocking it, you can PM me.

an overclocked E6300 will match E6600 at about 2.8Ghz.

Link

Thanks for the reply guys, my next question is:

Will a Thermaltek Armour Jr case do sufficient cooling? (Without extra fan or water cooling system)

To NightScope:

The RAM I am thinking about getting is 2 xTranscend DDR2 800 JetRam.....you thik this will be good enough for that 6420 overclock?

i would suggest you getting an OCZ 2Gb DDR 2 800, which is about 110 bucks at the moment.

but if cost is one of your biggest concern, Transcend should do fine. its just that you may not be able to overclock your RAM.

but without overclocking your RAM, simply running 1:1 between your CPU and RAM will give you about 3.2Ghz.

overclocking E6420 should be fairly easy, and you won't really need anything but stock Intel cooler to do 3.2Ghz, if you correctly set the voltage.

if at doubt, you can get a Thermaltake Mini Typhone for about 30 bucks. It should be sufficient.

EDIT: i forgot about the case   ... theoretically the case won't help much in dissipating the heat, unless the fan is right next to the CPU cooler. i would say just get a decent CPU cooler if you don't want to risk damaging your CPU. but you should do fine with the stock cooler.

I'm actually working on my dad's E4300 to run E6600 speeds, using DDR2667 memory.

So far its on Prime95 for about 2 hours to check stability. Need about 4 to 5 more hours to be somewhat sure if I got my bios setting good.

Does super PI 1MB 23 secs.  

Edit:

At stock speed for E4300, I was getting 30 secs at 1.8Ghz.

I was lurking here for quite a long time ... anyway:

At the moment the e6300 is not the best choice. Consider a 4300 or a 4400 depending on the fsb capabilities of Your motherboard. With a multiplier of 9 or 10 you can reach 3 GHz without overclocking Your ram and (1:1 at 333 FSB for 667 ram) or go way beyond that depending on the HSF You will be using.

I'm running an e6300 CONROE core (not ALLENDALE, half the cache disabled) @ 2,8 GHz with an UNDERVOLT to 1.29 V (1.22 V in bios but the motherboard overvolts the cpu by 0.07V and yes this is normal for this mb) and cooled with a el cheapo Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7+ @1028 RPM constant with temps ranging from 44 in idle to 58 load.

The other specs are:
-P5WS64 Proffesional
-2x1 gig 667 PATRIOT cl 5 @800 cl 5 with 2.0 volt

AFAIK any 667 currently on the market will reach 800 MHz without relaxing the timings so if on a tight budget pick a 667 entry level brand part.

and btw. my super pi 1M time is 19.125 s

Thanx guys for all your responses  

Zak.....gto some mroe questions for you if you dont hesitate:

1.
I am actually thinking about getting a Conroe 6420 now..coupled with a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 MB. What are the kind of things I can do with that without degrading the life span? (like.....make my 6420 perform like a 6x00 that kinda of thing)

2.
How do you check the speed multiplier of a MB? (excuse me if it's something listed on the spec...I must have overlooked it)

3.
Can I achieve (with respect to the overclocking mentioned in question 1) what 2 x 1G Transcend DDR2 800 RAM with that of a 2x 1G Corsair DDR2 667 RAM?

Cheers !

The extra cache (4 MB on the 6420 compared to 2MB on 4300) by itself gives only small (in the area of 3%) advantage when comparing with a 2MB part at the same clock speed. The bottom line is - if You can afford to buy a more expensive part for those few percent - go for it (otherwise spend the money on a better VID card i.e. 8800 gts)

You should check the forums for speciffic info regarding the MB You have picked.

All chips have some 'headroom' when regarding Voltage, heat and frequencies. In some cases it is bigger in some cases it is smaller. Moving within that 'headroom' does not influence the lifespan of a chip. The C2D family has shown very good potential to overclocking but remember there is always a small chance that You might get a lemon (in laymans terms - some parts dont overclock as good as others). I don't know whether the other people here would agree but I believe that a 50% OC on the lower end C2D processors (43xx,44xx,63xx,64xx) without raising the voltage (sometimes even lowering it) is well within the chips design capabilities and as such should not shorten the lifespan of the chip. (Would You care if the processor died in 10 years rather than i 20? Will You be using that PC in 10 years? I believe not)



the CPU speed is determined by this formula CPU=FSB*multiplier

The MB is responsible for the FSB. The multiplier is dependant on the CPU. The higher the multiplier the lower the fsb needed to reach a higher speed. The lower the multiplier the higher the fsb needed to reach a higher speed.



Browse the forums for info about the memory sticks You want to buy. I have did just that and made my purchase based on that info. Anyway - from what I have read on the forums any 667 cl5 could do 800 cl5 with a slight upping of the vmem to 2.0v. If there is a negligible difference in price take the higher rated modules. (The DDR3 is almost around the corner so the next sysem You will buy will have them rather the DDR2's so buy what You need now).

Google and make an iformed decission. Good luck and have fun with Your build.